Welding, such as gas metal arc welding, requires a continuous feed of metal wire to the welding tip, torch, nozzle, or gun, for use in the welding process. Wire feeders generally include a reel stand for holding a reel of wire and a wire drive module that draws wire from the reel and supplies it to the welding tip.
Wire feeders are provided as single and double header wire feeders, and additionally are typically available in both bench and boom mounted versions. In addition to the wire feeder, a welding system generally also includes welding gun connections, inlet gas connector (if necessary) with associated torch connector as well as a user interface with various required and optional control systems and interconnections. The wire feeder is often secured to the welding unit. With a single header wire feeder, wire from the wire feeder reel stand is routed to the welding unit according to the location of the wire drive system, i.e., on the left-hand side or right-hand side depending on the location of the drive motor. In a dual header wire drive, both wire reels and wire drive motors are positioned on both sides of the welding unit. While this obviates the left-handedness or right-handedness of the unit, it effectively increases both the size and cost of the unit.
With single header wire feeders, one possible solution to switching from a right-handed drive motor to a left-handed drive motor would be to simply rotate the entire wire drive and any associated controllers. However, this solution is not ideal because of cable routing and physical workspace limitation issues; for example the user interface may be in a position where it cannot be adjusted.
With dual header wire feeders, this solution requires maintaining additional, if substantially identical, product lines, manufacturing additional components, and requiring additional overhead to warehouse and shelve these products.
Therefore, there is a recognized need for a reversible wire feeder that may be interchangeably configurable to be used with a left-handed or right-handed wire feeder.
There is therefore recognized a need in the art for a wire feed unit that may be configured to provide dual wire feeding in a small footprint, or may be configured to provide either single or dual wire feeding with a single unit.